With the police and paramilitary forces preparing for the conduct of free and fair polls, it will become a challenge for them to tackle and control the rioters and troublemakers.
The Central government is unlikely to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) before the upcoming general elections. The same is likely to be implemented once the election results are announced.
This rethink in the government has happened in view of reports and inputs that implementing it now, as Home Minister Amit Shah had announced earlier this month, might create a law and order situation that will pose a stiff challenge for the government machinery, which is right now focusing on preparing for the elections.
Reports from multiple states including West Bengal, Assam and a few Northeastern states that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has received, after the public announcement by Shah and other union ministers, suggest that massive civil violence is likely to take place if the government moves ahead to implement the same right now.
With the police and paramilitary forces focused on preparing for the conduct of free and fair polls, inputs have said that it will become a huge challenge for the government machinery, both at the union level and the state level, to tackle and control the rioters and troublemakers who are likely to come out on the street once the CAA is implemented.
In February 2020, anti-CAA demonstrations were held across multiple cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Aligarh, Bengaluru, Kolkata and other parts of the country. In the last week of February, riots had broken out in Northeast Delhi between anti Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and pro CAA protestors. The violence took a communal turn and led to the death of over 53 people over the course of the next 10 days.
The Act was passed by the Parliament in December 2019 but has not been implemented till now.
On 10 February, while speaking at an event in New Delhi, Shah had said that the Act was an enabling Act as it would provide citizenship and not take away the citizenship of any individual.
“CAA is an Act of the country, it will definitely be notified. It will be notified before the polls. CAA will be implemented by the polls, and there should be no confusion around it,” Shah said.
He asserted that the CAA was an Act to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone’s citizenship, and that it aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants.